What Is New SAS Update 2.8.0 By Gandhinagar
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As one celebrates Good Governance day to honour Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it is time to remember his contribution to the school education in the form of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). The first draft of the Right to Education Act (RTE) was put together during his tenure as the Prime Minister of India. Many might remember SSA through ‘School Chale Hum’ ads on the TV, but behind it was India’s most successful school education scheme which formed the bedrock for India’s educational transformation.
What made SSA an effective intervention in education governance
Vajpayee government’s commitment to ensuing that every Indian 6-14 years old child receives free and compulsory education formed and strengthened India’s push towards universalisation of education. India can now dream of ensuring 50% Gross Enrolment Rate in tertiary education by 2035 under the National Education Policy (NEP), because it first set itself the target of universalizing elementary education under SSA. When Manmohan Singh’s UPA later combined the two tools envisaged in the Vajpayee era - SSA and the RTE act, India finally saw a revolutionary change in the field of education.
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At the heart of SSA’s success was the simple commitment of the Indian State to ensure availability of a quality primary school within a walking distance of 1 kilometer from the children’s residence; for upper Primary school (Class 6-8) it should be within a walking distance of 3 kilometer.
Why education accessibility gains under SSA and RTE are under threat?
Two decades later, SSA and RTE’s very foundation is at risk with the central and state governments pushing for permanent closure and merger of low-enrollment schools in remote areas. The plan which has been termed by the central government as ‘ School rationalisation’ targets the small schools which gave confidence to India’s parents from marginalized communities to send their children to school by terming them inefficient and wasteful. It has been a silent creep of each state ordering closure slow. The RTE Forum, a coalition of around 10,000 organisations working on education in 20 states across India estimates that over a one lakh government schools have been closed or merged in the country between 2010 and 2020.
It is doubly tragic to see it happen this year. Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat and a host of other states have reacted to the gradual lifting of lockdowns by ordering some of their government schools closed for good. Thousands of children in India will already never see school again on the back of the economic crisis. The government is adding to their pain by depriving them of their school by labelling it unnecessary.
Mergers are undoing legacy of universalization and exacerbating educational inequality among India’s poor, Adivasi, girls and children with disability Studies into the impact of mergers show it decreases enrolment. Rajasthan, one of the first states to consolidate schools at scale, saw a 7% fall in enrolment in consolidated schools (compared to 1.4% for the rest of the states). The move hit children with disability hardest, contributing to a 22% decline in enrolment. Girls were 4% more likely to dropout than boys. SC and ST students were hard hit.
It does so without evidence of improvement in learning outcomes and ignores benefits of small schools Research shows that despite differences in facilities between small and larger schools, there are no differences in eventual learning outcomes between them. School closure risks hardship and risk dropout without demonstrating significant improvement in learning or quality of education. Furthermore, smaller school sizes offer scope of building stronger interpersonal relationship between student and teachers and ensuring focused attention to each student. This can improve the quality education, if done properly. The problem with India’s education is the inadequate teacher preparation where many schools lack adequate professional qualifications, not the fact that India has committed to ensure that is has enough schools to reach to all of its scattered population.
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